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Virtual board meetings are here to stay

Virtual board meetings are set to become a part of how housing associations operate in the long term. Sharron Webster considers what changes and adaptations boards should put in place to make sure this works

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Virtual board meetings are here to stay, says Sharron Webster, a partner at @Trowers

“Chairs must have specific skills be able to manage virtual meetings as effectively as physical meetings,” says Sharron Webster, partner at @Trowers

After weeks of the obligatory “can you hear me?” “we can’t hear you!” at the start of every meeting, we now have had sufficient time to bed down into the virtual board, and by all accounts things are working well.

I am yet to meet anyone (from a safe distance of course) who has not experienced the benefits of operating governance remotely.

There now appears to be a universal acceptance that organisational governance will no longer be administered in the traditional way it was previously, pandemic or no pandemic. This is a good thing, but it’s not possible to simply shoehorn what we’ve done traditionally into a virtual world – it requires a different approach and there could be pitfalls for those who don’t properly adapt to a different reality.


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For starters, have you checked that your constitutional and other governance documentation allows for virtual meetings? Knowing that our new virtual world is unlikely to be temporary one, it will be important to review documentary frameworks to ensure that these support virtual arrangements.

Don’t forget to consider how this will impact on succession strategies and the skills that will be required of future board members, and to consider what your approach will be to ensuring that people are fully trained in how to use electronic platforms as part of their induction.

“Too much pruning and you run the risk of chopping away things that the board should be dealing with and have oversight of – and that could be dangerous”

One practical impact of the coronavirus pandemic and the move to remote meetings is that boards have been forced to strip down agendas only to critical items.

The efficiency and speed of decision-making are perhaps the two most reported benefits of the virtual board. This should be seen as a good thing, but a word of caution here, too much pruning and you run the risk of chopping away things that the board should be dealing with and have oversight of – and that could be dangerous.

Many associations have moved to shorter but more frequent meetings and some a much more fluid approach, meeting as and when the business requires it.

Again, there can be benefits to this, but executive teams need time to carry out their role too, in order to do the thinking, have time to formulate ideas and plans, and to implement board decisions.

Any increase in frequency of board meetings needs to be monitored in terms of its impact – positive or negative – on delivery at executive level.

Let’s also not forget that while doing board business (or any business for that matter) remotely may have its benefits, personal contact remains vital to exercising good governance and so physical meetings should still be built into any new meeting structure. Physical meetings are not entirely a thing of the past.

“Chairs must have specific skills be able to manage virtual meetings as effectively as physical meetings”

One of the main difficulties with the lack of physical presence at a meeting is the inability for participants to pick up on non-verbal but important cues, and so it is vital for board members to understand that remote meetings require different behaviours, perhaps underpinned by some proper training to skill individuals up in this respect.

The role of the chair is also particularly critical here, since it is part of the their role to ensure that the views of all board members can be fully taken into account. There are some important skills for chairs to demonstrate or pick up and this again may also impact on future recruitment as they must have specific skills be able to manage virtual meetings as effectively as physical meetings.

“The shift to a remote board space should be seen as an opportunity to open up board positions to a wider cross section of prospective board members”

The Chartered Governance Institute has published good practice for virtual board and committee meetings, which is well worth a read. It provides a useful guide to the practical and legal issues that need consideration for remote governance and talks about how virtual meetings can be made as effective as possible.

Finally, let’s not forget that it isn’t just the current pandemic which is shaping the way in which boards operate. The renewed focus on the Black Lives Matter movement should force us to look again at increasing diversity. As a sector we can and must do better.

The shift to a remote board space should be seen as an opportunity to open up board positions to a wider cross section of prospective board members and a more relaxed tone to board discussions should be used to facilitate a more inclusive board culture.

Sharron Webster, partner, Trowers & Hamlins

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